Preclinical Director of Studies for medicine at Churchill College, Cambridge University

Liz Soilleux is an honorary consultant in haematopathology, molecular pathology and autopsy pathology, a university lecturer in the Department of Pathology (https://www.path.cam.ac.uk/directory/elizabeth-soilleux) and the preclinical director of studies for medicine at Churchill College, Cambridge University (https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/people/fellows/). She returned to Cambridge in May 2017, after over 13 years in Oxford, during which time, she undertook specialist training in haematopathology and, for a period, ran the Oxford regional haematopathology diagnostic service. She was also a major contributor to the development of molecular pathology diagnostic services in Oxford.Her research interests lie in immunology and haematology, particularly the analysis of T-cells in diagnostics, related both to lymphoma and to immunological/ inflammatory conditions. She is also interested in the application of novel mathematical algorithms to various aspects of diagnosis, including digital image analysis and the analysis of large datasets, with the aim of improving objectivity of diagnosis and efficiency of workflow, perhaps with future automation of aspects of diagnostic histopathology. She teaches parts of the Part 1b course (year 2), as well as components of the clinical medical course (years 4 – 6). Liz Soilleux undertook both undergraduate and clinical medical training at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating in 1996 and moving rapidly towards specialisation in histopathology, working both as a senior house officer and registrar in Cambridge, while holding a teaching fellowship at Churchill College. She was awarded a Medical Research Council Clinical Training Fellowship to undertake a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Immunology, with additional funding from the Sackler Foundation. Her work made significant impact in the fields of HIV and immunology and culminated in the Dolph Adams Award from the Journal of Leucocyte Biology for the most highly cited original research paper in the journal in the preceding 5 years, in addition to a Glaxo Smith Kline fellowship from the Royal Society of Medicine and the Association of Clinical Pathologists’ Trainee Pathologists prize, both for being the most outstanding academic trainee pathologist in the UK in her cohort.She moved to Oxford to take up a Clinical Lectureship in 2004, running and lecturing on a large component of the university’s 4th year medical course. She was also appointed as a lecturer at St Hugh’s College in 2004 and undertook tutorials (supervisions) in pathology for the undergraduate and graduate entry preclinical courses, as well as laboratory medicine tutorials for the clinical medical students. She completed her final FRCPath examination and ascended to the consultant grade in 2005. She served as the Chief Examiner for the Oxford University Laboratory Medicine Course in 2009. She taught at postgraduate level on the internationally renowned ‘Oxford FRCPath Course’ between 2006 and 2017, which draws delegates from across the UK and internationally. Between 2008 and 2010, she was the training programme director for registrars (junior doctors) in pathology in the Oxford deanery, which included hospitals in Slough, Reading, Stoke Mandeville, High Wycombe and Milton Keynes. Between 2009 and 2017, she was also the lead pathologist for Sudden Cardiac Death in young adults in the Oxford deanery and a member of the Cardiac Pathology Network Steering Group, which aims to improve the autopsy investigation of such potentially heritable disorders. At a national level, she chaired the Education Subcommittee of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (2014 – 2017) and has been involved in organising a number of successful ‘PathSoc’ conferences. She remains the lead for the UK and Irish national pathology ambassador scheme, which she set up in 2017, to improve recruitment into pathology and to encourage academic endeavour among trainee pathologists. She is the UK pathologist on the national Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Steering Group. Liz was on the editorial board of Diagnostic Histopathology between 2009 and 2012. She is also a regular examiner for the FRCPath examinations and acts as external examiner for Experimental Pathology at Barts and The London Medical School, Queen Mary, University of London. She is a faculty member of the Nottingham Molecular Pathology course and the PathSoc Winter School Clinical Pathology course.